April 24, 2026

I’ll believe it when I see it. How many times have you said that? About anything. Perhaps the context is when you talk about a family member making a change in their life. Perhaps you’re referring to a promise made by your boss. Whatever the case may be, we are people who naturally doubt. We need to see the actionable evidence of something before we will put our complete trust in it.

We’ve been looking at the interactions Jesus had with his disciples after his resurrection. These encounters are unique because the risen Jesus is intentionally inviting these disciples into a life fully integrated with faith. This is the same faith Jesus invites us into.

Let’s look at John 20:24-29.

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Thomas gets a bad rap. Doubting Thomas. But you’ll notice something in the text: Jesus doesn’t show disappointment or frustration in Thomas’s faith (or lack of it). Jesus doesn’t chastise Thomas for his skepticism. He simply meets him where he is and calls him to a higher version of faith and trust.

Jesus wants our trust in him and his word and not in props, or physical presence, or proof. Jesus is consistently calling his apprentices to an ever-adjusting relationship with him. It can never stay the same. Jesus is looking to challenge, stretch, and advance our faith. You’ll notice, therefore, that Jesus responds differently to different degrees of faith throughout Scripture. In those interactions, Jesus’s recognition of “great faith” occurs when

someone believes in the power of Jesus’s word, alone. Thomas needed proof. He needed to see it to believe it. Jesus was ok with that. Thomas was having a crisis of faith. And Jesus was patient and willing to meet him in the midst of it.

Father Thomas Keating talks about a crisis of faith as a call to a new union with Jesus. It’s a systematic removal of the props and proofs which we feel are necessary. It’s a new growth and transformation of our weak spots into platforms for burgeoning spiritual maturity. If we aren’t careful in these crises of faith, we’ll get bogged down in the demand for Jesus’s presence and we’ll miss the transformational moments to trust in his word, alone.

It’s important that we, then, ask this question: Where is Jesus giving me the opportunities to manifest the faith that his word is power alone, and is enough?

In Matthew 8 a centurion asks Jesus to heal his dying servant. Jesus engages him with a question: Should I come to your house and heal her? The centurion’s response is beautiful. He answers Jesus admitting that he’s not worthy of Jesus’s presence in his home but that he knows Jesus could just speak the word and his servant would be healed. Matthew tells us that Jesus was amazed at his faith (and his servant was healed).

How might your response in faith to Jesus amaze him? I want to have the kind of faith that causes Jesus to marvel. I’m praying that he grants me that level of faith more and more each day.

Believing,

Nathan

Nathan Hinkle

Lead Pastor

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